Flag of Aiguafreda

The flag of Aiguafreda is a field divided horizontally: the upper half red and sown with white crosses; the lower one, two equal stripes, yellow and black.

How it came about

Aiguafreda is a municipality in the province of Barcelona, in Vallès Oriental. Its flag was approved on 13 January 1998.

The design takes its colours and its crosses from the municipal coat of arms, but simplified: there is no coat of arms on the flag, only the red field with the crosses and the two stripes below.

How it has changed

It has never changed. It was approved in 1998 and there are no documented later modifications.

What it means

• Red stripe

  the upper half, sown with white crosses.

• Crosses

  only three remain whole; the rest are cut by the edges of the field.

• Yellow stripe

  the first of the two equal stripes of the lower half.

• Black stripe

  the second, at the lower edge.

• No coat of arms

  the colours and the crosses come from the arms, but the arms are not drawn.

Fun facts

1. A sown field, as in the arms

   The red field is ‘sown’ with crosses: it is a heraldic term for a field covered with a repeated figure. Here the crosses are not arranged in regular rows but are cut by the edges of the field. That is what the description means by ‘sown’.

2. Only three whole crosses

   Of all the sown crosses, only three stay complete inside the field. The others run out over the edges. The effect is that the field looks denser than a regular row would give, and it feels as if the pattern continues beyond the cloth.

3. The coat of arms translated into three colours

   Aiguafreda has no coat of arms. Its flag reduces the arms to the essentials: the red field with the crosses, and the two stripes of yellow and black at the bottom. It is the same gesture made by many Catalan municipal flags of the nineties.

Location